Conventionally, there is an existing electronic device which has an album function of arranging images such as photographs etc. imaged, or a slide show function of displaying the images. Although a user browses the images using such an electronic device, it is extremely complicated for the user to select a desired image from among a lot of images.
To this end, a technology is developed in which images where a photographic subject is clearly reflected are selected from among a lot of photographed and stored images. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-209483 discloses a technology in which image data is selected according to only the quality of an image of a photographic subject, without being affected by blurring of an image of a background, etc. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-79446 discloses a technology in which whether a photographic subject is blurred is evaluated and a user selects out unnecessary blurred images.
There is a case where a user desires an image, in which a photographic subject is conspicuous, obtained by macro shooting or moving object shooting called panning. Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 16, it may be an image in which only a photographic subject is clear and a background is fading or blurred.
However, the above-mentioned conventional technologies cannot distinguish an image shown in FIG. 16 and an image shown in FIG. 17 from each other when sharpness of a photographic subject is the same as that of a background. That is, the above-mentioned conventional technologies have a problem in that an image in which sharpness of a photographic subject is relatively high compared with sharpness of a background cannot be distinguished.